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On my way into Wright Food Court at IU, I saw this bulletin board display, courtesy of IU's Residential Programs and Services:

This coming weekend is IU's renowned Little 500—an historic bike race and an excuse for students to give themselves over to drunkenness and immorality.

So what's the best reason we can come up with to keep students from getting wasted out of their minds, acting like fools, committing crimes, getting arrested, and maybe even dying? How can we make self-restraint palatable to impetuous young partyers? Never mind the fact that drunkenness is destructive to their lives, that it corrupts their minds and endangers their eternal souls…

they won't want to hear about that. I know! The calories! Yes, the calories! Let's appeal to their vanity and self-image in the hopes that they won't do something stupid. Surely the calories will stop them. After all, they'll want their figures to be in prime condition when they go to that fraternity lingerie party where their bodies will be on display for all to see. I've got it—

THINK before you DRINK: Calories from alcohol & snacks add up

This sort of campaigning is typical of the University's ostentatious discouragement of "irresponsible" and "unsafe" behavior. But who can blame them? They've got a tough line to walk. After all, they've got to keep the money flowing in from loyal alumni and parents and keep the students they're educating docile. So they continue to clean the outside of the cup while the inside is full of robbery and self-indulgence (Matthew 23:25). All of the posters and videos and orientation dramas give the appearance of restraining vice, but everything about the University itself serves to promote immorality and self-indulgence.

Thankfully, the Word of God teaches us that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. Not the fear of trustees, not the fear of rich alumni, not the fear of immature students, not the fear of their parents. The fear of the LORD. And here's the LORD's warning against drunkenness:

Who has woe? Who has sorrow?Who has contentions? Who has complaining?Who has wounds without cause?Who has redness of eyes?Those who linger long over wine,Those who go to taste mixed wine.Do not look on the wine when it is red,When it sparkles in the cup,When it goes down smoothly;At the last it bites like a serpentAnd stings like a viper.Your eyes will see strange thingsAnd your mind will utter perverse things.And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea,Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast."They struck me, but I did not become ill;They beat me, but I did not know it.When shall I awake?I will seek another drink."(Proverbs 23:29–35)

Does this describe you? Repent of your sin. Come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness, and live a life that is pleasing to God!